Thursday, 4 a.m.
And the sad, painful slide of the Tampa Bay Rays continues.
Once again, it is the bullpen that is leading the way.
The Rays lost again — which is becoming a regular sight — on Wednesday night, falling 5-4 to the New York Yankees in 11 innings. The loss left the Rays 7-17 for the month of July. Overall, they are now 54-55, their first time they’ve been under .500 since May 19.
The thing that made this loss hard to swallow were the blown leads by the Rays late.
Going into eighth, the Rays led 1-0. But Rays’ reliever Bryan Baker came in and gave up four hits and two runs. Trent Grisham homered and Giancarlo Stanton singled in a run.
Ah, but Josh Lowe, hitting .192 in July, hit a two-run homer to return the lead to the Rays.
That’s when Pete Fairbanks entered, needing only to get through the bottom of the Yankees’ order for a save. But Anthony Volpe homered to send the game into extra innings.
This time, it was Jonathan Aranda who returned the lead to the Rays with a deep sacrifice fly with the bases loaded.
Cody Bellinger tied the game with a triple to center field off of Edwin Uceta.
The Rays didn't’ score in the 11th, meaning that Ryan McMahon could win the game with a deep single to center field off of Kevin Kelly.
The Rays have lost five of six games.
Pitcher Zack Littell went five innings and allowed just two hits. After the game, reports were that Littell was traded to the Cincinnati Reds.
For the Rays, Brandon Lowe and Yandy Diaz each had two hits. But the Rays struck out nine times, had two baserunners thrown out stealing and another picked off second.
The Rays conclude their four-game series against the Yankees today at 1:05 p.m. Ryan Pepiot will start for the Rays against Marcus Stroman.